This invention relates to mold for forming sheet material such as dough, and more particularly to a dough frame consisting of a combination of elements which enables the rolling and forming of dough to a pre-determined size and shape without flouring the working surfaces and enables the intact removal of said dough into a pie pan for baking.
A pie essentially consists of one or two layers of crust of pastry dough and a filling. The difficult aspect of pie making is in the rolling, shaping, and placing or transferring of the rolled and formed dough from the surface on which dough has been rolled onto the baking container.
Attempts have been made to facilitate the procedures of dough rolling, shaping and transferring. Rolling pins; stockinette coverings for rolling pins to minimize sticking of dough to the rolling pin; and pastry cloths and pastry boards which provide surfaces on which dough may be rolled in the conventional manner are available in retail outlets. Using those products, the conventional procedures for forming and transferring the formed dough into a pie plate is to lightly flour the surfaces of the rolling pin and the pastry cloth or board, taking care not to use too much flour since that will toughen the dough; then the dough mixture is placed on the board and rolled. During the rolling process, the dough is gently loosened and the surfaces of the board and rolling pin are floured as needed to prevent dough from sticking. Rolling is continued until the dough is approximately one-eighth inch thick and about 11/2 inches wider on all sides than the inverted pie plate. The formed dough is then carefully folded in half and lifted onto an ungreased pie plate. The dough is then unfolded and centered as needed, taking care to avoid tearing or cracking the dough.
The conventional method of pie dough rolling and forming is a messy and laborious process. The rolling pin and the surface on which dough is rolled must be lightly floured not only at the beginning of the dough forming process but intermittently as the dough is formed. Hands are coated with flour. Flour dust is airborne or spread to adjacent areas and even onto the floor. In addition, if a cloth rolling pin cover and pastry cloth are used, they must be washed out in a separate operation from that of dishwashing. The conventional method requires judgement in approximating the thickness and size of the formed dough. Frequently errors in judgement occur. In the case of two crust pies, too much of the dough mixture is sometimes used for the bottom crust, leaving an insufficient amount of dough mixture for the top crust.
The conventional method of transferring the formed dough from the pastry board into the baking container requires dexterity and relative speed. In the course of folding, lifting, centering and unfolding of formed dough, the dough may break and require patching after it has been placed in the pie pan. Sometimes dough breakage is such as to require re-rolling.
Molds having rigid sides integral with base portions of one type or another have been suggested to facilitate pie dough making. Such molds, although easing the rolling and shaping of a pie dough mixture, do not allow easy intact removal of the formed dough. The nature of a pie dough mixture is such that when dough is firmly rolled and formed within an integral mold the attendant adhesive strength of the dough to the mold is greater than the cohesive strength of the dough. Hence removing the formed dough from an integral mold becomes problematical despite initial light flouring of the mold.
Simply rolling and forming dough between two thin sheets of plastic material has been tried to circumvent some of the aforementioned difficulties. Although the non-sticky characteristic of thin plastic sheets allow the sheets to be peeled away from the dough, the method is unsatisfactory since the plastic sheets together with the dough being rolled therein tend to slide and move over the counter space due to a lack of fixedness between the bottom plastic sheet and the working surface.